Politician
"I don’t pretend to speak for all of you here in this fine village. However, I can speak from experience that having such an advocate makes it all the easier to both alleviate your suffering and to negotiate on a stronger footing with merchants, consortiums, and nobles alike. Grant me your trust and you shall see greater returns in providence, safety, and welfare." Advanced (Core) While the Nobles are nominally “in charge” of most of the Old World’s countries, it is the Politicians who actually run the villages, towns, and cities of the Empire. They are an often reviled and frequently corruptible lot whose ranks include burgomeisters, mayors, and other civil servants. Some are elected to their positions, while others are appointed. Politicians frequently find themselves between various dangerous factions and have to swiftly become skilled at the fine art of compromise. They are experts at saying exactly what people want to hear, though if they actually follow through on their promises, it’s a minor miracle. Main Profile Secondary Profile Skills: Academic Knowledge (History or Genealogy/Heraldry), Academic Knowledge (Law), Blather, Charm, Command, Common Knowledge (the Empire), Evaluate, Gossip, Haggle, Perception, Performer (Actor), Read/Write, Speak Language (Reikspiel) Talents: Dealmaker or Schemer, Etiquette or Streetwise, Master Orator, Public Speaking Trappings: Best Craftsmenship Hand Weapon, Best Craftsmenship Leather Jack, Pamphlets Career Entries Agitator, Bailiff, Captain, Charlatan, Courtier, Crime Lord, Demagogue, Farmer, Guild Master, Herald, High Priest, Merchant, Noble, Peasant, Prelate, Racketeer, Toll Keeper Career Exits Courtier, Crime Lord, Demagogue, Noble Lord, Racketeer, Steward Politicians in the City Civil servants who run things for nobles—that’s a common view of politicians, but it’s incomplete. Politicians can fulfil a wide variety of roles. They can be useful sources of employment, as they need to get things done (or at least appear so). They’re useful as sources of information, as their nature keeps their ears to the ground. They’re also quite often handy behind-the-scenes villains for a longer campaign. Lastly, politicians are often in need of guards while travelling, as their gifts for talking won’t often deter highwaymen or cutpurses or rival agitators and demagogues. Hugo Stewardally Born the fourteenth child of a farming family in the Moot, Hugo was marked as different from birth with mismatched blue and brown eyes. The sickly halfling learned herbalism and natural medicines from his grandmother. She also taught him how to use people’s expectations to his best advantage and how to listen. Hugo left the Moot to become an Averheim tradesman, producing and selling herbal remedies. Word of his skills and the quality of his wares improved his fortunes. Before he turned 30, he opened the first nonhuman- owned apothecary in Nuln. By the time he was 40, he owned nine shops across two Imperial provinces, recruiting many siblings to run his shops for him. Hugo’s skill at constructing friendships across many races and nationalities became his greatest strength. The seemingly-innocent halfling had a knack for both knowing how to react and who to listen to on most occasions. He also easily made the right friends at the right times and places. Hugo’s political interests began long before his career as a politician. His constant trade conflicts with bigoted guildmasters or nobles led him to stand up for nonhuman interests. After taking the time to study Imperial law and improve his public speaking, Hugo began using his contacts, his friends, and his clients to forge strong political ties among them. Hugo’s work resulted in his becoming the focal representative of numerous dwarven and halfling business interests across the southern Empire. Hugo remains in Nuln today, while he owns and oversees his seven herbalists’ shops and twelve apothecaries spread across the Moot, Stirland, Wissenland, and Averland. His success provides him the freedom to act as the spokesperson for many less fortunate demihuman factions—businesses, guilds, or whole communities. Hugo has represented folk normally unable to broker trade deals with Nuln’s ruling nobles or major trade councils and he has even agented deals for others in Altdorf on more than one occasion. While many still underestimate Hugo for his charming smile and smaller-than-average size, they don’t do so twice.